Page 54 of Shadow Caster
He sucked in his lips. “It is, indeed.”
“And these barracks are south too?”
“Correct.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
He handed out the rest of the watch compasses, but no one else spoke to him or asked him any questions.
Several minutes later, Hyde had wrapped up his weapons allocation, and we were ready. Harmon had an axe and Thomas twin hunting daggers. We strapped on holsters relevant to our weapons. Mine slipped on like a waistcoat, so the axes sat against my back. Harmon helped adjust the straps to make it fit, his huge hands working deftly as if he’d done this before. It made me wonder about his life with the pack. Did they use weapons like these? Why would they need to when they had fangs and claws?
And then Hyde was leading us out of the barracks and into the night. The mist hovered fifteen meters away, rising like a wall to greet us. Feet faltered as everyone took a moment to appreciate the magnitude of what was about to happen. We were doing this. We were going into the grey stuff that shrouded the land.
And then we were moving fast, headed right for the mist, then into the mist, and then it was closing around us. I gasped as it touched my skin, and then coughed as it filled my lungs.
Others around me were doing the same.
“Relax,” Hyde said. “It can’t hurt you. Breathe normally.”
I closed my eyes and willed my pulse to relax. It was mist. Nothing more. My pulse calmed and I opened my eyes to a world that was muted and hazy. Visibility was reduced by about thirty percent, but it was nowhere near as thick as it looked from the outside. The air tasted different, too. The taste was familiar. What was it?
“Licorice.” Harmon spat the word from beside me. “Fucking hate licorice.”
“Stay together,” Hyde said. “You stray, and you’re on your own.”
He strode off, vanishing into the mist. We jogged to catch up. Shadows to the left and right.
“AM posts.” Hyde came to a halt by a thick metal post. A ladder was attached to it. He placed his hand on it. “You’ll be trained on AM maintenance starting tomorrow. You’ll be split into three groups and allocated a second-year troop to man barracks with once a week.”
He led us away from the post, farther and farther away from the barracks. Deeper into the mist.
“How far does sector one stretch, sir?” one of the cadets asked.
“A mile north. And a mile east and west,” Hyde said. “The width of the breach.”
He angled his body east and continued walking. A low hum registered.
“Do you hear that?” I nudged Thomas.
“Yeah,” he replied. “I think that’s the mechanism of the posts.”
They were poisoning the air against the fomorians, but it looked like the air had an effect on the terrain too. The earth was dry and dusty, and I had no idea how any creatures could possibly live here.
Hyde came to a halt again, and beyond him, through the mist, a dark, cavernous space was visible. It looked like the mouth to a cave. We got closer, and yes, it was definitely a cave.
Hyde turned to us. “These are the catacombs. This is where your first trial will take place. The mouth of this cave leads to the only entrance and exit to the catacombs beneath. It’s sealed up now, but it will be opened in three weeks for you. You’ll be sealed inside for eight hours. If you survive, you pass.”
Sealed in … That hardly sounded like a trial, unless … “What’s inside there? What are you going to seal us in with?”
His expression was stony. “Hounds. You’ll be sealed in with hounds and their younglings.”
A shiver of apprehension rushed up my spine. “You want us to kill them?”
He smirked. “Or be killed. Your choice.”
Someone snickered. Tosser. Obviously hadn’t thought shit through like I had. It was why I was so confused. The knights raised and trained hounds to work alongside them. Killing them was counterproductive.
“Isn’t it a waste to kill the hounds that the knights use?”
